Lok sabha 2024: in j&k, poll patterns are back to square one

But none of those contests mark a new pattern. There is no sign at all of the new beginning which was so vociferously spoken of almost five years ago. Indeed, the contest for every seat is a

repeat of 2019, the only difference being that top party bosses (Abdullah and Lone) are in direct contest for the Baramulla seat, and youth leaders Wahid Para and Agha Rohullah for the

Srinagar seat. As if to seal the continuity, `Engineer’ Abdul Rashid, who got almost as many votes as PC last time, is contesting the Baramulla seat again—only this time from jail. I have

repeatedly said that deactivating Article 370 of the Constitution was the least of what was done. Reducing a state to two union territories was a far bigger step. But, of the five things

that happened in that first week of August 2019, the sidelining of the political class of Jammu and Kashmir (not Ladakh) was potentially the most consequential. For one thing, it was the

only one of the five things that was popular, almost universally across the new union territory—except, of course, among the leading cadres of political parties. Young citizens were

jubilant. By and large, they had no sympathy for the hundreds of politicians who were locked up. For, as a class, they (and many of their elders too) thought of politicians in both Kashmir

and Jammu (including BJP leaders) as corrupt, nepotistic, and worthless. By and large, it was a correct assessment. Since that photo-op, the process of pushing ahead of the past has been

inexorable—so much so that the BJP did not mention the constitutional changes in its manifesto. What, in retrospect, was the point of that prolonged incarceration? After all, there was no

hint of rebellion on the ground. And what was the point of the then chief secretary’s cussed refusal to allow high-speed internet for far longer than any security agency thought necessary?

Just empty, pointless, negative optics to give the country a bad name?